Wheat and Cloudy

[Zephyr259]

Hi all,

I've got a small batch of ESB which should be ready to drink any day now but looking through the bottles the beer is rather cloudy despite a decent sediment dropping to the bottom.

Could this be due to the malted wheat in the recipe? Full recipe below.

850g Maris Otter
110g Victory
110g Malted Wheat

Did BIAB with 4.8L at 65C then sparged with 3.2L at 73C. Boiled with 6.5g each Brewers gold for 60 mins, Fuggles for 30 mins and EKG at flame-out. Fermented with S-04 for 2 weeks in a 1 gallon demijohn then bottled and conditioned for 2 weeks.

Thanks.

 

[Leon103]

The percentage of wheat isn't too much. Why colour bottles are they?

 

[BeerCat]

Did you use any protafloc? I have some beers that are 30% wheat that are crystal clear.

 

[Zephyr259]

Thanks for the thoughts guys. I didn't use any additives for aiding the clarity as it was my first all grain batch and didn't think about it cause the recipe I was using as inspiration didn't use any. The bottles are fairly dark brown but compared to my crystal clear Woodforde's Sundew you can see the difference when held up to any light. I also had a look using the torch on my phone. :-)

Tried some with dinner and it's not good at the moment, odd flavour which I'm hoping is due to unsettled yeast and a fair bit of mouthfeel. FG was 1.006 so should be pretty dry also the hoppy bitterness I tasted before fermentation isn't nearly so evident now. Guess i'll leave it for a couple of weeks and see if it conditions anymore.

 

[dan125]

I think they might just need some more time. 2 weeks in the bottle isn't very long. Now they are carbonated try to chill them down to get the remaining sediment/haze to settle.
:

 

[Zephyr259]

Thanks Dan, yeah I've moved them to the coldest cupboard in the house, there's only 7 bottles but the don't fit upright in the fridge unfortunately.

 

[Zephyr259]

Another 3 weeks have passed and the beer still looks really cloudy in the bottles, under inspection I can see a kinda "fog" effect near the top of the bottle where the suspended particles have cleared from the very top. But we're talking a centimetre at most so it doesn't look like this beer's ever going to clear fully. I'm guessing that it's something innocuous like starch or protein and not yeast since the S-04 used floculates very well. Any thoughts?

 

[dan125]

Any thoughts?

Sounds like they are clearing slowly, but tbh honest if it were me I'd probably drink them now anyway - but I don't mind a bit of haze.
have you tried one?

 

[Zephyr259]

They might be but at this rate I think it'd take a year or more to clear... I tried one after 2 weeks and it tasted a bit odd, might be the Victory malt or some odd hop flavours from taking ages to cool? Might have also been psychosomatic since i'm not used to unintentionally cloudy beer and was worried it might adversely affect my digestion. :-)

Gonna chill one down and check again, I'll post a pic if i remember.

 

[dad_of_jon]

They might be but at this rate I think it'd take a year or more to clear... I tried one after 2 weeks and it tasted a bit odd, might be the Victory malt or some odd hop flavours from taking ages to cool? Might have also been psychosomatic since i'm not used to unintentionally cloudy beer and was worried it might adversely affect my digestion. :-)

Gonna chill one down and check again, I'll post a pic if i remember.

I find wheat beers create more farts than other styles I drink. Ipa/apa's are the best - low fart ratio and lovely hoppy burps :lol:

 

[Zephyr259]

Not sure how well the photo shows it but the beers still fairly cloudy but it looks like a wheat beer level to me now. Also it tastes great, very smooth start with a lot of hip flavours coming through and a hint of the victory toastiness on the finish.

Very happy with my first AG brew, can't wait for Christmas to try the barleywine.

 

[BeerCat]

Not sure how well the photo shows it but the beers still fairly cloudy but it looks like a wheat beer level to me now. Also it tastes great, very smooth start with a lot of hip flavours coming through and a hint of the victory toastiness on the finish.

Very happy with my first AG brew, can't wait for Christmas to try the barleywine.

Nice job mate. Looks decent :thumb:

 

[strange-steve]

Clarity isn't really something I worry about. My last beer was just as cloudy, a saison with 10% wheat and 10% rye, and as long as it tastes good, which it does, I'm fine with that. I take a leaf out of the Belgians book of brewing here, I had some of the world's finest beers there and not one of them was clear. Even if brewing for competitions appearance is worth only 3 points maximum out of 50.

 

[Zephyr259]

Thanks for the votes of confidence BeerCat and Strange-Steve. I'm now fairly convinced that it's to do with the wheat (or victory - unlikely) as the barleywine is clearing up very nicely after only 10 days in the bottle.

Problem now is I want to brew more but don't have a lot of time having just started uni, also I'm still limited to a 10 L stock pot and I was hoping to hold off for an ACE boiler in 2 weeks but they are out of stock for a while. I guess 7 - 8 L is still a decent number of bottles to be worth the effort.

 

[dad_of_jon]

Thanks for the votes of confidence BeerCat and Strange-Steve. I'm now fairly convinced that it's to do with the wheat (or victory - unlikely) as the barleywine is clearing up very nicely after only 10 days in the bottle.

Problem now is I want to brew more but don't have a lot of time having just started uni, also I'm still limited to a 10 L stock pot and I was hoping to hold off for an ACE boiler in 2 weeks but they are out of stock for a while. I guess 7 - 8 L is still a decent number of bottles to be worth the effort.

you could do an extract or part extract and dilute with bottled water to make up bigger volumes if thats what you're after. I reckon you could get 13-14 liters of higher abv% brews or more if you prefer beers below 5%

 

[Zephyr259]

Hmm... interesting idea, so boil up 8L at 1.080 then cut back in the fermenter to give 16L of 1.040? Something along those lines at least? Could work nicely, thanks.

 

[dad_of_jon]

yes the only drawback as I see it would be a lower hop utilisation in a high gravity wort but of course you could add a hop tea. I've diluted a recent beer DOWN to 1.080 at 21 litres from 9 litres. I didn't measure what the OG was undiluted.

A recipe calculator will give you the figures you want, so if you want 21 litres plug in 21 liters and then add fermentables to the recipe till you get the ballpark abv you want. Then fit them into the pot you have.

 

[jezbrews]

That looks fairly normal for a wheat beer. Mine is rarely clearer. Does it taste good? Because really that's what matters! You could be waiting a very long time for a wheat beer to completely clarify.

 

[Cwrw666]

I've had much cloudier brews than that. Hoppy pale ales especially. Personally I couldn't care less as it has no effect on the taste. Buy a pewter tankard?:lol:

 

[Zephyr259]

Yeah it tastes great, when I first started it after 2 weeks in the bottle it wasn't so good but now it's great. Nice blend of bitter, hoppy and toasty grain.